Opinion: Have China's Hackers Crossed the Rubicon?

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... I ... welcome back to Opinion Journal I'm Mary Kissel ... any Fortune five hundred CEO privately and they will lax we are with wax lyrical ... about the threat from Chinese hacking ... but now the ten network security firm is made these threats very public led change the policy conversation in Washington ... American Enterprise Institute scholar and Fox News contributor investor John Bolton is here ... John Mediacorp which I should disclose we've also hired ... two without looking hacking for The Wall Street Journal ... so really change this report to change the conversation in the violent why think it has the potential to do that because although the Pentagon has studied hacking ... of the government and a major American corporations for some time ... it's been done in the classified world this report is now public and I faxed the White House report ... many report came out first and said ... hey guys hacking is very widespread ... let's talk about that White House report hundred and forty pages ... aam ... what is a Telesat soon ... will ... be the ... the extent of the threat we face from state actors particularly China I think is a very real in every business is worried about Comercial staff then losing its information or violating people's privacy ... that that this really raises it to a whole different level and it shows that ... is our economy that so vulnerable point for some of our potential adversaries ... not just our military and potentially affecting American workers the White House report named names that said ... I'd DuPont four hundred million dollar loss G and forty million in there a number of examples here ... on ... this is an extensive documents Chinese isn't enough ... no it's not the White House is treating the threat of cyber warfare ... much the same way it treats the threat of international terrorism that is a law enforcement matter if you look at the White House solution ... it's finds prosecutions that sorta thing ... I think that's a piece of a broader response ... but critically when it comes from countries like China Russia Iran ... this has the potential to rise to the level of an active or even if it's directed against ... infrastructure the air traffic control system our financial system ... it could cause enormous disruption to the US in the economy and we have to be much more aware of that and much more active in ... no way defending against that the building up our own offensive cyber capability on the use of that phrase it could be an act of war ... on the Obama administration has not been particularly ... shall we say strong on China to believe when they do things like this with James robbery cry this ... on the ... house China really crossover book rubric on here ... I do use is from your contacts in Washington ... said they're going to adopt a new approach and attitude is tougher attitude toward China ... well I think there are many people in the military to want to do that I think people in the intelligence community understand that's why these reports and the public discussion on hold flow from them is so important as more people need to be aware of ... CEOs of major American corporations are already aware of it ... the we need to talk alot more about where this fits into China's overall strategy it's the it's ... assertive territorial claims it's building a blue water navy its anti satellite weapons ... and its asymmetric threat to our information technology ... was the it before and gone ... so the threat that was always going to be there or ... is this kind of ... muscular behavior out of China a result of ... our weakness in the Pacific or our stance internationally well I think it's I think it's part of it but I think what China did was look and where America was vulnerable where he could pose an asymmetric threat to us ... they're not for the forseeable future than a match us in nuclear weapons of war ... Bluewater naval capabilities that they could see how reliant we are on information technology communications and computers ... and their cyber warfare ... capabilities are intended ... to cripple us if favored the use that that's why I think we need to be ... much more aware of the nature of the thread because they're way ahead of us were were trying to catch up let's let's be clear they're way ahead of Stampers this week is this man in corporate report and then we had the White House come out ... yesterday ... out with its own document ... I that I was there also surrounds the sequester ... which is across the board cuts including to the Pentagon ... aam you should we recalibrate how we think about cutting defense and given ... that now the public has more knowledge about the seriousness of the threat from China yet this is just one more reason why Manson cuts in the defense budget or so ill advise cyberwarfare ... doesn't replace existing ... places where battles can take place is a new front in this broader struggle so it shows why the United States has to be agile to meet ... the potential for threats ... the conventional level one level weapons of mass destruction in the cyberspace ... and and and every time we caught were limiting our capabilities not just in the areas we cut specifically but in the expanding ... battle space that we say lesson thirty seconds left eye which is why pick on Democrats here or there also are Republicans ... who don't truly understand the nature of this threat unfortunately a lot of Republicans I'm more worried about rising isolationism in the Republican party than in any time since the nineteen thirties were out of practice dealing with it but we better get back in practice or ... we will see even the Republican Party traditionally strong national security party ... moving an isolationist or action ... cook a moving and isolationist erection ...